Source is any Windows 8 x86 or x64 fresh Installed on primary active partition of internal harddisk Or Win8 Pro installed in 15 GB VHDTarget Boot Drive can be FAT32 (needed for UEFI) USB-drive used only for Boot files so that there are no changes for booting of internal harrddisk .Target System Drive must be NTFS and is the drive where the Win8 VHD file is created and this can be your internal harddisk drive.

Windows 8 VHD files make use of Microsoft VHD driver which allows in Boot Manager Menu to boot VHD as FILEDISK.Booting VHD files from Grub4dos Menu as FILEDISK or as RAMDISK requires to Install in Source VHD either FiraDisk Or WinVBlock driver.Additinally Installed Programs and Drivers and Settings are remembered in FILEDISK just like in normal Windows OS.Loading the VHD into RAMDISK is much faster when the VHD file is located on the internal NTFS harddisk drive.

Build-in Defraggler is useful to Defrag files within the Win8 VHD, but post processing is also possible after mounting the Win8 VHD.NTFS Compression results in high fragmentation e.g. 85% so that it is advised to use Defrag VHD option.

VHD_W8_Compact.exe will create the Boot Manager Menu entry on HDD or USB Boot Drive for the Win8 VHD on NTFS System Drive.

Boot with Windows 7/8 or 7/8 PE and then use WinNTSetup3to Install any Windows 8 x86 or x64 on primary active partition of internal harddisk Or to Install Win8 Pro in 15 GB VHD.Boot Drive can be FAT32 or NTFS USB-drive so that normal booting of the internal harddisk is not changed.

hello. 'm first created fix vhd with win nt setup, and after that install windows 8 pro 32 bit from windows 7 pro x86 as source. Verry intresting point are that i'm alos try upgrade windows 7 pro to windows 8 pro x86 on this machine but on setup proces, after restart computer reboot constantly, and i needed to back system with rolback rx

hello. 'm first created fix vhd with win nt setup, and after that install windows 8 pro 32 bit from windows 7 pro x86 as source. Verry intresting point are that i'm alos try upgrade windows 7 pro to windows 8 pro x86 on this machine but on setup proces, after restart computer reboot constantly, and i needed to back system with rolback rx

Hello, i cusscesfuly installed windows 8 pro media centar on another computer, and after that boot from first computer as well on fizical usb hard disk. now open vhd compact and try make vhd from usb hard disk, select user directory and system drive, in combo box select full setup but after 2 minutes i got a error

and after that boot from first computer as well on fizical usb hard disk. now open vhd compact and try make vhd from usb hard disk, select user directory and system drive, in combo box select full setup but after 2 minutes i got a error

You should not boot with the Win8 from which you want to make a VHD.

The Win8 Source must not be in use when making VHD.

Try to Boot with some other Win7 / 8 / 7PE and then run VHD_W8_Compact to make VHD using Win8 on USB as Source.

What setting of VHD Size did you use in Full Copy ?

You would need certainly 10 GB for VHD Size to accomodate a full Win8 source.

I advise however to make Portable Win8 with reduced VHD Size e.g. 2.5 GB for 32-bits or 3.5 GB for x64 version.

Can you give a Screenshot of VHD_W8_Compact .exe when the error occurs,

so that I can see what is the Boot Drive and System Drive and Win8 Source Drive and VHD Size Setting ?

I used instead Win8 64-bit Enterprise, so it could be the cause. Also I did not reboot
after activating testsigning on. Your procedure did not explicitly mention it. I think you need
to add also the need to check the testsigning status by executing the command bcdedit. By the way,
I discover that there is no bcdedit.exe in \windows\system32 under Windows 8, so I have take the version
from my Windows 7-64. Note: I do not turn off UAC, I always run executables in administrator mode, is it sufficient?

1)
But I am really confused now, for sure probably I am missing something.
I understand that VHD_W8_Compact is used to make Mini 8, so this is a kind of make_pe4.
make_pe3: the input is either Win7 ISO or Win7 live system. The output is an iso file that can be booted
with grub4dos via CD-ROM emulation. So I assume (maybe wrongly) that VHD_W8_compact would have same input
but the output will be a VHD bootable with bootmgr.

But in fact the input is a VHD source! This means I must have already a working Win8 version in VHD!
No more simply a Win8 ISO as input! So I understand that first I have to create a VHD, install Win8 Pro
using WinNtSetup v2, then boot the VHD, make some tweaking (UAC, hibernation etc...) on the Win8 input VHD, is this right?
(I did not understand this, why the need to do these tweaks on the input Win8 VHD). By the way, these
steps could be done using the provided .reg files, this is not mentioned in your procedure. But then why the
HKLM Software/System tweaks for? for the target Win8 VHD ?

2)
What is recommended, Firadisk or WinVblock driver? Curiously WinVBlock_install directory is not under makebt as firadisk?

3)
In the program there are 3 choices : Mini 8, Portable, Full Copy. What are the differences between these 3 versions? Does it mean that Mini 8 and
Full Copy are not "portable"? By "portable" I mean to be able to boot on any hardware, like with with make_pe3.
Or do the 3 versions when booting on different hardwares have to learn and memorize different drivers?

On your machine (I guess Win8-64) for building Win8 VHD, do you need to turn off UAC?
If yes, then do you use the Control Panel/User accounts to turn UAC off, or do you
change this registry key:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System]
"EnableLUA"=dword:00000000